Tag Archives: USA

With living in South Africa, the racism card likes to be used often, because of our troubled past. Unfortunately, I do not believe this will ever go away, but what people do not realise is that it is not only South Africa that has overcome problems when it comes to racism.

Enter, the modeling industry. Diversity has never been the modeling industry’s strong card, as highlighted by Vogue Italia’s groundbreaking “Black Issue” from 2008. What was so groundbreaking was the fact that it happened at all – an international fashion magazine drawing attention to racism in its own industry.

With this in mind, I’d like to point out that before this publication, “The Black Issue“, there was a massive movement of women of colour fighting for their rights to be in the fashion industry, here are some of my favourites highlighting their stides on and off the runway.

PRINCESS ELIZABETH OF TORO – 1936

The daughter of the King of Toro, one of the four tribes that originally ruled Uganda, Elizabeth was the third black women to ever attend Cambridge University and Uganda’s first female lawyer. When England’s Princess Margaret invited her to model in a charity fashion show, Elizabeth’s modeling career took off and she graced the pages of Vogue and the cover of Harper’s Bazaar in 1969. She later moved to New York where she modeled for the legendary Irving Penn.

NAOMI SIMS – 1948 – 2009

Before there was Naomi, there was Naomi. The first black supermodel, Naomi Sims worked overtime to break into what is still a largely racist industry. Naomi officially made it when she appeared in a US national AT&T commercial, the cover of Ladies’ Home Journal and the cover of Life All in 1968.

IMAN – 1955

With her long, graceful neck and statuesque beauty, Iman looks like she was actually plucked out of a Somalian village and thrown on a runway, but in reality she was discovered by photographer Peter Beard while she was studying political science in Nairobi. Upon coming to New York in 1975, however, she happily played along with the myth that Beard had discovered her as “a teen tribeswomen tending 500 cattle and sheep in a Kenyan game preserve”. What followed is one of the greatest careers in modern fashion history : a muse for Yves Saint Laurent, Issey Miyake and Calvin Klein, an entrepreneur and the one women to tame David Bowie.

MOUNIA

Mounia was Yves Saint Laurent’sfirst black muse and his favourite model. She was also the first black model he used in his haute couture shows. Mounia rose to prominence following YSL’s classic Porgy & Bess show, which he designed around her and led to covers of WWD and French Elle.

DONYALE LUNA 1945 – 1979

Pegg Ann Freeman escaped the slums of Detroit, USA, for the glitz and glamour of NYC. Here as Donyale Luna, she was was exotic and intriguing whereas in Detroit she “wasn’t considered beautiful or anything.” At 6’1″ with her already striking features and ultramarine contacts, she was in high demand, becoming the first black women to cover British Vogue in 1996. Donyale lived like, partied like and dated rock stars only to eventually die like one when she overdosed in 1979.

BEVERLY JOHNSON 1952

Bev Johnson’s name will go down in history as the first black women on the cover of US Vogue in 1974, a watershed moment for models of all diversities. Bev logged over 500 covers in her career before embarking on a mildly successful acting career and starting her own line of wigs.

BILLIE BLAIR – 1946

A former nursing student from Michigan, Billie became “New York’s newest superstar model” and the “standard of female beauty” after setting Paris ablaze as one of the stars of the Battle of Versailles in 1973. She commanded $400 a day – years before Linda Evangelista wouldn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 – though still making her one of the best paid runway models at the time.

GRACE JONES – 1948

Part supermodel, part mental patient, dart disco/New Wave/dancehall queen, Grace Jones is an enigma, wrapped in a question, wrapped in a kimono. Her distinctive style and personality are a constant source of inspiration for musicians like Rihanna and Lady Gaga to magazine editorials, who find her a favourite subject in particular… is it any wonder? That type of crazy comes along once in an androgynous moon.

PAT EVANS

Black, bald and beautiful. Pat shaved her head in the 60s as a protest against the modeling industry’s obsession with straight hair. The decision proved fortuitous for Pat, leading to appearances in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar and perhaps, most famously, a quartlet of album covers for The Ohio Players. In 1974, Pat threw it all away when she published a scathing article in Essence magazine attacking the industry’s racism and its discrimination effectively ending her career.

PAT CLEVELAND

Pat was discovered in the subway in 1967 by fashion illustrator Antonio who admitted that he thought she was ugly, but with his help she became a dynmic and versatile force in print and on the runway. Along with Blair, Cleveland was one of the black models that entranced the French during the Battle of Versailles.

There’s a long time trend of creating mega-expensive things like gold and diamond nail polishes, jewellery topped cupcakes, and whatnot. Well, the most expensive dress costs ₤3.5 million, roughly R48 million, yes, you read that right, R48,000,000, it weighs 13 kilograms since it’s embellished with twenty five two carat black diamonds plus twenty five more on the shurg.

The dress is designed by Debbie Wingham, a self-taught designer from Britain whose dresses have worn such celebrities as Kate Winslet, Dita Von Teese, Hilary Swank and others.

The floor length gown features black diamond encrushed peplum and a shoulder shrug as well as the “fine beading and delicate pointer white diamonds set in white gold iwth a very fine chain mail detail“. Debbie Wingham’s collection of diamond dresses was showcased at the Billionaires Club, in Monte Carlo, The Fairmont Grand Hotel Kiev, Ukraine and Russia.

For her future design plans Debbie Wingham is going to do a Diamond Cut Jeans collection with limited edition of just 750 black diamond cut jeans and 1500 white diamond cut jeans.

The next showcases of her work will take place in Dubai, Switzerland, Mumbai and the USA.

I believe people clearly have more money than sense. No one can doubt that Debbie Wingham’s creations are beautiful, but when was the last time you saw someone wearing a dress that could quite happily feed, clothe, educate a third world country?

I know we all at some stage may have splurged bought items when we’re shopping that we KNEW were too expensive, but really, this is a whole other level.

Hiya Poutlings

Save the date: Thursday, 8th of November the krap-tackular fashion offerings of Kim, Khloe and Kourtney are going to Dorothy Perkins in the UK.

Apparently, it took the the three sisters and their pimp momager Kris Jenner a long time to find a retailer outside the US that was a good fit for their “Kardashian Kollection” brand.

So, as the UK-based budget brand (and sister of Topshop) continues to go global, they’re using the Krapdashians to make their name in the US and cash in on the public, like the Krapdashians do with the public obsessesion of reality TV stars.

In one months time Brit shoppers will be able to shop for sheer, tight, animal print krap in-store as well as international shoppers online in the USA, France, Germany, UK and Ireland.

Here’s a few examples of the current “klassy” offerings at the US department store, Sears which our British readers will be seeing the like of when you drop your kiddies off at school discos this Khristmas…

Dorothy Perkins, for the record, we are not amused. Go to the front of the class and face the wall until the kollection krashes and you’ve learned your lesson.

It’s a puty the stuff won’t be avaible by Halloween, that’s an easy-access Halloween costume idea right out the window.

If you’ve had a craving for rain forests, untapped deposits of raw minerals, and gigantic penises, now’s the time to head to the Republic of Congo.

Hiya Poutlings 🙂

A new study ranked the world’s countries by average length of erect penises and found that the Congo is home to the most well-endowed individuals. At 18.034cm, their enormous sex organs put them at the top, just above the male populations in Ecuador – 17.78cm, Ghana – 17.272cm, Columbia – 17.018cm, and Iceland 16.51cm.

Wondering where the USA falls on the world’s penis chart? Get out your magnifying glass … you’re gonna need it.

The average penis size of an American man is 12.954cm, landing them the 25th percent, behind the U.K. with 13.97cm, Spain also with 13.97cm, and Canadas also at 13.97cm, as well. Poor Americans. So many huge SUVs polluting the World’s Ozone layer, so many little penises.

If heading to the Congo really isn’t your thing, you might want to consider a trip to Italy. They came in 6th out of 113 nationalities with an average length of 15.748cm. Pasta, pizza, gelato, aqueducts, wine, art, romance, history, bucolic landscapes, ancient cities, and enormous baloney ponies? Italy really is a dream land…. If you have no sarcasm filter, this statement is sarcasm.

South Africa came in after Italy, 7th place according to this study, at 15.24 centimeters. Yay. Go TEAM SA. Please wave your flags around safely. Be wise, condomise, and all that jazz.

The research was done by a professor at Ulster University and some are critiquing its validity, saying he got his “facts” from the Internet, but come on. It’s a study on schlong sizes. Of course you use the web to glean data on this – it’s not like the professor took a ruler around the world and demanded men to whip out their peters.

But if that is what he did, I wonder if he needs a research assistant next year… I think I know the perfect candidate for him. hahaha.